1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stereoscopic video processing apparatus for processing stereoscopic video data for playback, transmission, and the like, a stereoscopic video processing method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image sensing system capable of capturing the video signal obtained by a video camera in real time, the captured video data is transmitted to a remote place through a network. As systems for controlling the transmission rate of video signal data on the transmitting end, for example, WebView (Canon), RealVideo (RealNetworks), and VDOLive (VDOnetwork) are known.
In this conventional video transmission display system, however, two-dimensional video data is transmitted, and a sense of depth cannot be expressed by this data. This poses a problem in terms of dynamism and realism. Demands have therefore arisen for video transmission systems capable of stereoscopic display.
Several mere stereoscopic video cameras and stereoscopic video display apparatuses have already been put into practice. It is theoretically conceivable that a stereoscopic video transmission display system can be constructed by incorporating such an apparatus into the above video transmission display system.
Many of the stereoscopic video cameras on the market are designed to output the stereoscopic image synthesized by combining video data from the cameras of two systems vertically or horizontally (the scheme of splitting a 1-frame data recording area into two consecutive areas and assigning the left-eye image to one area and the right-eye image to the other area) or to output line sequential video data by switching left-eye and right-eye images in units of lines of the video data.
Since conventional stereoscopic video display apparatuses are designed to be connected to compatible stereoscopic video cameras without the mediacy of networks, it suffices if stereoscopic video cameras compatible with the display apparatuses are prepared.
If, however, line sequential stereoscopic video data is distributed in the presence of a plurality of stereoscopic image formats through a network, the distributed stereoscopic video data may not be processed depending on a reception terminal because of an incompatible format.
In addition, when a plurality of types of stereoscopic video display devices are connected to one server, there is a possibility that some devices can play back video data but other devices cannot play back it depending on the format of the received stereoscopic video data.
It is an object of the present invention to solve all the problems described above or at least one of them.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic video processing apparatus corresponding to a plurality of types of stereoscopic video formats.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic video processing apparatus capable of converting the format of input stereoscopic video data into an arbitrary format.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic video apparatus capable of inputting a plurality of types of stereoscopic video formats.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic video apparatus capable of outputting a plurality of types of stereoscopic video formats.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic video apparatus capable of outputting stereoscopic video data in accordance with a stereoscopic video format in which data can be displayed on a display apparatus.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a stereoscopic video processing apparatus comprising:
input means for inputting stereoscopic video data;
conversion means for converting a format of the stereoscopic video data input to the input means into a format suited to output operation; and
output means for outputting the stereoscopic video data converted by the conversion means.
More preferably, the stereoscopic video processing apparatus outputs stereoscopic video data to the network.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic video apparatus suited to distributing stereoscopic video data to a network.
In order to achieve the above object, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a stereoscopic video processing apparatus comprising:
input means for inputting stereoscopic video data;
conversion means for converting a format of the stereoscopic video data input to the input means into a format suited to outputting the data to a network; and
output means for outputting the stereoscopic video data converted by the conversion means.
More preferably, the stereoscopic video processing apparatus is characterized in that line sequential format data is input to the input means.
More preferably, the stereoscopic video processing apparatus further comprises compression means for compressing the stereoscopic video data converted by the conversion means.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic video processing apparatus which can prevent a user from having a sense of incongruity due to a mismatch between the color appearance of a right-eye image and that of a left-eye image when input stereoscopic video data is to be displayed.
In order to achieve the above object, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a stereoscopic video processing apparatus comprising:
input means for inputting stereoscopic video data;
detection means for detecting lightness information of each of video data obtained from the input means;
correction means for correcting right-eye and left-eye video data on the basis of the lightness information detected by the detection means;
generation means for generating stereoscopic video data by combining the video data corrected by the correction means; and
output means for outputting the stereoscopic video data generated by the generation means.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying renderings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.